ONDC is a private non-profit Section 8 company established by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) of the Government of India to develop open e-commerce.
Which ministry is responsible for ONDC?
What is ONDC? About: It is an open e-commerce protocol set up by the Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
Is ONDC open source?
ONDC is to be based on open-sourced methodology, using open specifications and open network protocols independent of any specific platform.
Which companies invested in ONDC?
Major players such as the State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and HDFC Bank have invested in ONDC.
To reduce the dominance of e-commerce giants like Flipkart and Amazon, the government today rolled out its big initiative — Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) — for public in Bengaluru. With the help of ONDC, government plans to help small retailers and create an alternative to dominant global giants like Amazon and Walmart, who controls over half of India’s fast-growing e-commerce market.
Understanding ONDC’s ownership model is important, but the bigger challenge will be maintaining trust among thousands of independent participants operating on the network. Since ONDC is not a traditional marketplace controlling every transaction, strong governance mechanisms are required for dispute resolution, data privacy, quality standards, fraud prevention, and participant accountability. The success of such an open ecosystem will depend on how effectively it balances decentralization with operational control while ensuring a consistent experience for buyers and sellers across different applications.